Indonesia’s timber legality system has not been able to stop pulp and paper giants from using illegally sourced timber, as the system is filled with loopholes, an investigation has found.

According to the investigation, pulp and paper companies PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL) and PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) have not been compliant with the country’s timber legality system, called the Wood Legality Verification System (SVLK), even though both firms received legal certification and continued to supply timber to pulp and paper giants.

PT AHL supplies timber to PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP), which is a subsidiary of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), Indonesia’s second-largest pulp and paper producer. PT TPL, meanwhile, is an affiliate of the Royal Golden Eagle Group according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Greenpeace. APRIL is also a part of the group.

“We found that PT AHL was still opening up peatland areas [for pulp plantations in North Kalimantan],” Muhammad Kosar from the Indonesian Independent Forest Monitoring Network (JPIK) said. “Some of the peatlands even had depths of more than 3 meters.”

The investigation, conducted jointly by the JPIK and Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI), also found that PT AHL still harvest their wood from natural forests, outside of its own plantation.

Kosar said that PT AHL harvested their wood unsustainably in order to meet the pulp and paper demand from PT RAPP, frustrating APRIL’s mission to stop forests being cleared for new plantations.

He based his argument on an Environment and Forestry Ministry document called the Industrial Material Fulfillment Plan (RPBBI), which showed the usage of timber sourced from natural forests from September to November 2015.

The document showed an increasing volume of timber being cut by PT AHL in North Kalimantan, from 1.07 million cubic meters in September to 1.2 million in October and 1.3 million in November. Meanwhile, the volume of timber cut by PT RAPP itself was constant during that time, with 171,630 cubic meters in Kepulauan Meranti regency and 3,421 M3 in Pelalawan regency, Riau.

“These findings indicate a form of violation of these companies’ own commitments to their own internal Sustainable Forest Management Plan [SFMP] policies. This plan is only to boost their image so that their products sell well in the global market,” Kosar said.

Earlier this year, APRIL announced PT RAPP and its suppliers had stopped harvesting from any Indonesian natural forests, four years ahead of its commitment.

According to APRIL, starting next year the company will derive all of its pulp wood from its own plantations and those of its suppliers, which now total 480,000 hectares, for its 2.8-million-ton capacity pulp mills.

Besides PT AHL, the investigation also found that PT TPL’s operation in North Sumatra was mired with land disputes and the violation of locals’ human rights.

According to Kosar, the local community living in PT TPL’s operating area is still struggling to take over management of a 3,900-square-meter customary forest from the company.

For decades the local residents used to make ends meet by harvesting incense trees from the forest. The villagers, however, are now unable to rely on the forest for their livelihoods because PT TPL, which in 1992 was granted a concession to manage 269,000 hectares of forest in North Sumatra for 35 years, started felling trees on customary land in 2009.

“The conflict there has reached boiling point, with the case falling into the hands of the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM] in 2014 but until now no resolution has been achieved because of a lack of clear boundaries between the customary forest and the concession,” Kosar said.

“PT AHL received a ‘good’ rating in its final performance assessment result, with a score of 91 percent,” said Kosar.

Therefore, he suspected that certification agencies had failed to assess either company properly as both clearly did not meet the criteria set by the SVLK system.

Commenting on the investigative report, APRIL spokesman Agung Laksamana said that neither company was part of APRIL.

“PT AHL is a third party and short-term supplier of fibre to APRIL Group/RAPP. It is not part of the APRIL Group/RAPP and we do not have any legal relationship with PT AHL beyond a supply chain relationship,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. “PT TPL is a publicly listed company and not a subsidiary or an affiliate of the APRIL Group. Therefore, we cannot provide any comment on this issue.”

Agung also maintained that APRIL was fully committed to its Sustainable Forest Management Plan.

“We have instructed all our suppliers to fully comply with our SFMP2.0 and more importantly not to conduct any new developments in natural forests and forested peatland. We will continue to ensure that they comply with our strict policies. However, if our suppliers are proven to have committed any violation of this policy, APRIL/RAPP will suspend the relationship with that supplier until it has proven that it has taken the necessary actions to ensure that it fully complies with all laws and regulations and with APRIL’s/RAPP’s strict policies, to ensure that such violations do not reoccur,” he said. ***

PT Toba Pulp Lestari clarifies

The Jakarta Post article “Report Finds SVLK fails to stop illegal logging” published on Dec. 23, 2015 carried various allegations made by a single source, Muhammad Kosar from FWI, against PT Toba Pulp Lestari Tbk (TPL). No attempt was made by the Post to contact TPL for comments or to fact-check.

The following is a point-for-point rebuttal of the allegations carried in the article.

1. “According to the investigation, pulp and paper companies PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL) and PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) have not been compliant with the country’s timber legality system, called the Wood Legality Verification System (SVLK), even though both firms received legal certification and continued to supply timber to pulp and paper giants”.

TPL runs its operations, both in plantations in supplying wood (fiber) as raw material for pulp or in the mill in receipt of wood supply from plantations, in accordance with existing laws and regulations, as well as standards set in SVLK and PHPL (Sustainable Forest Management). Our operations are audited by independent assessors who are accredited by the National Accreditation Committee (SVLK by SGS and PHPL by Ayamaru).

2. “the investigation also found that PT TPL’s operation in North Sumatra was mired with land disputes and the violation of locals’ human rights”.

TPL operates in accordance with the State Forest concession (IUPHHK-HT) from the Minister of Forestry Decree No: 493 / Kpts-II / 1992 dated June 1, 1992 in line with Decree No: SK.58 / Menhut-II / 2011 dated February 28, 2011. There is no dispute over land ownership with the community because our operations are conducted in locations established by the State Forest, and in accordance with our HTI license.

TPL works closely with and in the interest of local communities. They are given access to conduct their activities (e.g. harvest incense trees, taking rattan, and other non-timber forest products) because they can utilize available infrastructure built by TPL.

3. “According to Kosar, the local community living in PT TPL’s operating area is still struggling to take over management of a 3,900-square-meter customary forest from the company”.

Our IUPHHK-HT TPL is located on State Forest with the function of Permanent Production Forest (HP) and there is no customary land in this plantation. However, for the sake of the community, TPL has accommodated and reserved approximately 8 percent of total HTI for livelihood purposes. This is above the 5 percent required by law.

4. “The villagers, however, are now unable to rely on the forest for their livelihoods because PT TPL, which in 1992 was granted a concession to manage 269,000 hectares of forest in North Sumatra for 35 years, started felling trees on customary land in 2009”.

TPL’s concession has been reduced from 269,060 ha to 190,187.72 ha. Although we are allowed by regulation to establish Industrial Timber Plantations covering 70 percent of the total area granted to us, we plan to use only 40 percent. The remainder is set aside for livelihood, local species, conservation areas and infrastructure.

To date, TPL established HTI +50,000 hectares or approximately 26 percent of which can be developed as mandated by the Act of 70 percent as we consider the interests of local communities and of environmental conservation holistically.

Villagers around the forest still depend on forests managed by TPL as TPL provides an opportunity to provide easy access to conduct their activities in harvesting incense trees, taking rattan, and other non-timber forest products in HTI TPL. TPL with collaboration with the Forestry Research Institute of Ae Nauli (BPK Aek Nauli) developing incense trees by producing good incense seeds. The incense seeds have been planted in area of livelihood plant and its benefit to entirely of surrounding communities. TPL also involves surrounding communities in the operations by giving jobs opportunity i.e. land preparation, planting, maintenance, harvesting and hauling to mill site.

5. “The conflict there has reached boiling point, with the case falling into the hands of the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM] in 2014 but until now no resolution has been achieved because of a lack of clear boundaries between the customary forest and the concession”.

TPL has never committed any human right violations. On the contrary, TPL employees suffered persecution and abduction by certain parties. TPL has set clear boundaries of IUPHHK-HT TPL. The latest solution instructed by the Ministry of Forestry is to accommodate the interests of the society through partnership in developing incense plant. The partnership has been realized after we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with local communities as per direction of the Ministry of Forestry.

Juanda Panjaitan

Director, PT Toba Pulp Lestari Tbk

Medan

Thank you for your clarification. We apologize for failing to acquire comments from PT Toba Pulp Lestari Tbk.

Editor

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